.LONGLEAF PINE. 45 
be far richer in timber than it is. At best, few fires would probably 
have occurred, and some probably always will occur. Public senti- 
ment in the South will some day reach the point where fires, so far 
as humanly possible, will be eleminated; those which do start will 
be attacked and brought under control, and the great area of natural 
forest land will be brought into productiveness. 
A vast amount of longleaf pine is killed or seriously injured by 
fire every year. The first-year seedling is very susceptible to fire. 
The growing sapling is always set back or stunted when robbed of 
its tuft of foliage, and, as the result of repeated attacks, it weakens 
and dies. The few saplings that succeed in the struggle and reach 
pole size are usually worked early for turpentine, and within a 
period of 5 years thereafter most of them become a complete loss 
as a result of burning and the subsequent attacks of insects and 
diseases or of windfall. 
The power of longleaf pine to withstand the effect of fire is 
remarkable. It is very likely that this exceptional adaptation has 
given the species the popular reputation of being completely immune 
from fire, and even of "thriving on fires" (PL XV). The fact that 
many longleaf saplings survive an ordinary burning fire is no ade- 
quate reason for implying that longleaf is immune and suffers no 
injury from fire. Every fire, with probably few exceptions, takes 
its toll in the death of a greater or less number of trees, and in addi- 
tion causes much injury to practically all the others (PL XVI). 
The degree of injury varies widely with the size of the tree, the 
amount and dryness of the inflammable material, and velocity of the 
wind. In this manner promising young stands have been repeatedly 
wiped out from the same tract of cut-over land. A few stragglers 
can usually be found, giving a clue to the successive young stands 
that at various times have provided the land with the making of 
a forest. 
If fire burns underneath 1 or 2 year old seedlings, they are 
usually killed. A quick grass fire under a stiff breeze, however, 
passes so rapidly that many 1-year-old seedlings may survive. If 
fires burn in summer or fall during dry weather, longleaf seedlings 
up to 8 years old are very apt to be completely wiped out. From 
about the second year up to the fifth year, or at heights up to about 
1 foot, longleaf seedlings appear to be relatively very restant to 
the effects of fire. For longleaf pine the zone of greatest injury 
from fire is apparently from 1 to 5 feet above the ground, where 
the heat blanket is most intense. This corresponds to the ages of 
approximately 5 to 8 or sometimes J.0 years. 
The familar sight of stunted saplings standing alone or in small 
groups, huddled for protection on an upturned " clay root," or along 
